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“She won’t find out,” David said soothingly. He’d clasped the young woman’s hands in his and to all intents and purposes they were looking more like a couple in love than stepfather and stepdaughter.

“We simply must tell her,” said Laura.

“But we can’t. If we do, she’ll be devastated.”

“But we love each other,” said Laura with a pleading note to her voice. “How much longer can we keep up this pretense?”

“I know. I feel exactly the same way. I love you, Laura. My heart yearns for you, and seeing you and not being able to be with you—it eats me up inside.”

“If only you weren’t married to Mama. Oh, life is so unfair sometimes.”

“I know. If only I’d met you before I met your mother…”

“You think you would have fallen in love with me right from the start?”

“I did fall in love with you right from the start, didn’t I?”

“As did I,” said Laura softly.

There was the unmistakable sound of gentle smooching, and as I briefly ducked my head from under that bench I detected some heavy kissing activity.

Yikes.

“What’s happening, Max?” asked Dooley once I’d retracted my head again.

“Um… looks like David and Laura are in love,” I said. “And they’re not afraid to show it.” At least where Mrs. Biles wouldn’t see it. Good thing these cruise ships consist of many nooks and crannies—perfect to conduct these illegitimate love affairs.

“But… isn’t David Laura’s dad?”

“Technically… not, I would say. He’s married to her mother but he’s not her dad.”

“So who is her dad?”

“Well, the guy who fell off a yacht in the South of France and drowned, remember?”

“Oh, of course. Jason Bourne.”

Just then, Salvatore decided to join us. The teacup Maltese had gone for a little walk on his own and now returned. And as he came tripping up to us, he said,“So now you know.”

“Now we know what?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Don’t offend my intelligence, Max. Now you know that Laura and David are an item.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Not my place to tell. They’re in love, but they can’t be together. It’s all very sad.”

“But they are together,” said Dooley. “They’re together right now.”

“Yeah, but not really. They can’t be together the way your Odelia and Chase are together.”

“But why not?”

“Because David is married to Laura’s mom, that’s why.”

“Oh, right,” said Dooley. “It’s all very complicated, isn’t it?”

“Look, if they really want to be together, all they need to do is break the news to Mrs. Biles,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“That’s what you think,” said Salvatore, shaking his head. “Bertha will go ballistic. The woman is crazy about her husband, and if she finds out he’s been cheating on her with her own daughter?”

“She’ll blow her top,” I supplied. “Yeah, I guess you’re probably right.”

“Of course I’m right.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since the day Bertha and David got married. I walk into the room where they store the wedding presents and saw them at it.”

“Bertha and David?”

“Laura and David. They looked more in love than any couple I’ve ever seen, including Bertha and David before he met the daughter.”

“He hadn’t met Laura before the wedding?”

“Nope. Laura lived in San Francisco at the time, and David and Bertha’s affair was one of those whirlwind romances. Laura only got to know the groom at the wedding.”

“Looks like she got to know him pretty well,” I said as we listened to more kissing sounds.

Salvatore heaved a sigh.“So sad.”

“I still think they should tell Bertha. It’s not fair, all this sneaking around behind her back.”

“Laura is afraid that if they tell her she’ll never talk to them again.”

“Which is entirely possible. Bertha lost her first husband, and now this. She’ll never forgive them.”

“But they can’t go on like this, Salvatore!” Dooley cried. “They just can’t!”

“And why not? They’ll keep seeing each other in secret, and then one day, hopefully in a distant future, when Bertha is no longer with us, they’ll make it official—after respecting the proper mourning period, of course.”

“But that could be years and years and years!”

“I know. But that’s the way it is.”

“This is almost like General Hospital,” said Dooley as he darted a quick glance at the unhappy couple. “They’re still kissing,” he announced excitedly. Then his eyes went wide. “They’re going to get caught! What if one of the other passengers sees them and tells Bertha?”

“Constantly having to live like this,” said Salvatore, shaking his head. “Can you imagine? Always having to hide and being afraid their secret will be discovered.”

“How horrible,” said Dooley, but his eyes were shining, and I knew that the moment he talked to Gran he would tell her all about it.

16

We’d returned to our cabin and entered to find… Ruby Kettering with her nose stuck in the closet, keenly fingering one of Odelia’s nicer blouses.

“Oh, hi,” said the girl, and color immediately crept up her neck, then her face, then all the way to the roots of her hair.